Trash Metal, on its way.

My new years' resolution was to delve into a new medium, and hopefully make it into a mini-business.  I have always loved making my own jewelry, though I had never considered making enough to sell.

I have been working with pewter, trying my hand at metal casting. I've also been plucking bones out of owl pellets, which is a tedious but fascinating task.

Coming together, slowly but surely. Many more Trash Metal posts to come in the future.  I add little snapshots like the ones above to my instagram (http://statigr.am/maatleycrue) on a regular basis, so check that out if you're able.

Vend Send Mend

Vend Send Mend is a project started by two of my former classmates, Craig Bowers and Jee-Shaun Wang.  It is a fundraiser for disaster relief in Japan, and over 60 artists contributed work to be auctioned off for the cause.  Here was my piece for the event, I decided to an experimental collage piece:

Hieronymus Bosch figurine not included.

Wrinkles in: Depth Perception

The second installment of the Wrinkles saga is complete. This comic is printed on an 11x17 piece of paper, cut and folded into a meandering accordion booklet. They are black and white, with black laser-cut museum board covers.

I only printed a small run of these (20!) so get them while you can. Send me an email at egmaatman@gmail.com if you are interested.

"Sleepy Dog" will do.

This is an animation I completed in part with Ian Ihrig and Ellie Howson in December 2009. I made the dog character (he is now a showpiece in my dog-themed bathroom,) supplied/designed the set (bonus points if you can find the items in the background which have found new life in my my last post) and shot most of the footage, while Ian and Ellie did most of the animating, film editing and sound editing.

Thesis Complesis

My thesis is finally done! What started off as something experimental has developed into a skill and a style that I am glad I can have as part of my portfolio. I'm not sure how it's going to fit into the overall scheme of my career as an artist, but I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from friends and faculty. And, now I can say I'm an amateur woodworker, electrician, and taxidermist.

So here it is, the story of Egor the Brave:

 

I'm planning to move out of Baltimore in the coming months, so I'm selling these bulky things. Numbers 2 and 8 are gone, but if you're interested in any the others, please contact me at egmaatman@gmail.com for prices. Graduation is Monday. Eep!

Carcass Week!

What a hectic month I've had! First of all, my boy and I've moved into a new apartment, and moving commanded most of my time these past couple weeks. The apartment came with an adorable cat who was left there (hrmph) by her previous owner. I re-named her Bird... she chirps sometimes.



Last week I completed a t-shirt design based on a news article. The article can be viewed here. What's believed to be the world's oldest cemetery was found in Jordan, and archaeologists found fox remains buried next to the human remains, and were treated similarly. This led scientists to believe that the foxes may have been kept as pets.


Larger View

Based on this project and the items we moved into her apartment, Bird probably noticed our fascination with skeletons, oddities and the like. The day after Valentine's Day she gave us a gift: a tiny dead mouse!



She must have known it was the perfect size for the piece I am currently working on for Thesis. I've never tried taxidermy before, but the internet gives you pretty easy step-by-step instructions. I've been a vegetarian for several years now, so it took about an hour to muster up the courage to make the first cut... but after that it was surprisingly easy.





i've spared you the gory details. the second one is for scale... I'd have to say it would probably be easier to stuff a bigger mouse, but I took what I was given. In a future post, I'll show you what this little guy gets used for.

Scooter and Carl Do Cincinnati

 Last Spring semester I had the pleasure of doing an independent study with Ted McGrath, and he helped me to make these "action figures." They are more like sculptures, or mock-ups for vinyl toys that will likely never be.  They are based on a series of ten collage sketches I did earlier in the year... other characters like "Dr. Singh, Male Gynocologist" and "Ben the Lonely Spaceman" never made it to the third dimension. Scooter and Carl started like this:

And by the end of the semester, they became who they are today:



read the Carl's comic!



read Scooter's comic!


The figures and accessories are clay over wire armatures, with hand-sewn little shirts and clothes. The boxes were constructed of mat board and painted with goache and ink.


Scooter and Carl are currently en route to Cincinnati to see my friends at Static Age! They will be in a show called "Pairs," so if you are in the area, go check it out! Scooter and Carl are just for looks, but I'll have things for sale there too.

I'll leave you with this GIF I made when I was sculpting Scooter's skinny nude body:

The Perk got slimed.

I hung up some illustrations and other things at Patterson Perk earlier this week.  They should be up at least through the end of January.



I also just recently made this fun wall sculpture with a couple antlers I found at the flea market and some wooden beads.




Extinct now, obviously.

If you're in Baltimore, it's cold and awful outside.  So what the hell are you doing at Patterson Park? Come by Patterson Perk at 2501 Eastern Avenue and get a cup of coffee to warm up.

Flappy New Year!

One year closer to the Apocalypse. Can't wait!

So far I've had a pretty productive break. I finally started and finished the portrait of my grandparents that I'd been promising them I'd do for a while.

...I tried.  I shaved a couple years off 'em.

Then I decided I'd do a couple little pieces for fun. These are going to be hanging up in Patterson Perk on Eastern Avenue, along with some framed collages, the Wanderin' mind, some wacky wall sculpture I'm finishing now, and more!

Kit Gloves. Collage and acrylic on two 6" wood panels.

And for good measure, here's a peek at my thesis as of the end of fall semester.

Next semester I'll be making four more box constructions, and then documenting all of the pieces and putting them into a hand-bound book.

Thanks to Janna Morton for taking pictures, I was so sleep deprived on the last day of class that I forgot my camera!